Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Final thoughts on A.J., and dubious reporters' anonymous sources

A.J. to the ATLIf there was any justice in the universe, A.J. would sign with Atlanta today so that we can rid our minds of any thoughts of him someway, somehow making his way back to Toronto.

It was fun to have him around while it lasted, but when it comes to A.J., we'd laid the wreath upon that stone some time ago.

The Braves are a great fit for A.J., and we suspect that for the first little while, he'll look like Nolan Ryan and will make some comment about Toronto that will put our knickers in a twist. Then he'll blow out his arm, and someone in Atlanta will wonder if they learned anything from their half-decade with Mike Hampton.

There are anonymous sources, and then there is this horseshiteOur antipathy towards Marty York has been expressed on numerous occasions, but we never thought that our views of Canada's Premier Commuter Paper Sports Journalist could fall further.

While the story was definitely newsworthy, we can't believe that York had the audacity to include the following paragraph:

"Sources in professional sports told Metro that no Canadian sports franchise in history has laid off as many employees in one day as the Jays did Tuesday."

We're sorry, but that is an absolute load of hooey.

There is a time and place to make use of anonymous sources in journalism, but they should be used judiciously, and only when there is no other option. This clearly is not one of those times. This is a simple statement of facts, and if York wanted to run with it, he should have verified those numbers instead of taking the lazy way out.

Unfortunately, someone is going to take this purported statement of facts as the truth, when for all we know, it was the usher at Toronto Rock games who made the claim off the top of his head. If York had any shame at all, he would have either found a legit source that would go on the record with this claim, or he would have done the research himself.

We don't expect much from Marty York, but this is even beneath his low standards.

Fongo, my first thought also went to the Expos, as this would imply that the team had less than 24 staffers who did not want to move to Washington.

Or how about the Renegades when they folded? They didn't bring anyone to another city, everyone lost their jobs then, and I have to think that they had more than 24 people running the organization. What a ridiculous statement.

I sit in sackcloth and ashes because I quoted that comment without even realizing who wrote the article. When it was pointed out I was compelled to edit in a caveat but what you just noted didn't occur to me.

To be fair to Metro New and their anonymous sources(just for fun), perhaps in the situations you mentioned before, the layoffs were spread out over several days, as opposed to all on just one. You know, since it'd make a huge difference if a franchise laid off 23 employees each day from Monday to Friday, instead of just 24 on a Wednesday. Right?